


kila

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Ramayana fics [22]
Category: Ramayana - Valmiki
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Oneshot, Parallels, Period-Typical Victim Blaming, contradictions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22140304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: It is said that when a woman loses her purity, she loses her life.kila (Sanskrit): supposedly, allegedly
Series: Ramayana fics [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1105638
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	kila

Consider: Rambha was raped by her own uncle-in-law, the dread King of Lanka. She still rules as Queen of the Apsaras. Her husband never raised his eyes to her, only cursing Ravana with such an impressive curse that he never forced another woman again.

Consider: Ruma was raped not once but many times by her brother-in-law, and made a prisoner in her own home. She is still Queen of Kishkindha. Her husband was willing to organize his own brother’s murder through near-treacherous means, commit to an alliance that would necessitate an entirely separate war effort in order to rescue her.

(True, Sugriva takes Tara as his queen, and both husband and wife are forever prone to indolence and melancholy afterwards, but weighed against the sheer enormity of their survival and safety, what here is sufferance?)

Consider: Sita was never touched by Ravana: snatched away, kidnapped, locked in a garden, tormented by ogres, and forced to choose between becoming either his bride or his breakfast, but never raped. She is Queen of Ayodhya for only a few months before being banished to the forest once more. Her husband denies her even the dignity of a goodbye, and nothing can sway him: not the dubiety of one _dhobi_ ’s diatribe, nor the memory of fourteen years’ worth of loyalty, nor the plight of his unborn child, nor the outrage of his whole family.

Why do Rambha and Ruma have crowns and loyal husbands, and Sita a forest and twin children to raise alone, when Sita is the only one to be fire-proven pure?


End file.
